The 27 Employment Ministers of Europe yesterday narrowly avoided agreeing to an agency workers directive that would have cost jobs.

The central proposition in the directive is that agency workers should be entitled to the same pay and basic working conditions as a person who would have been recruited directly into that position.

Helen Reynolds, acting chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, says: “We have never understood the raison d’être behind the agency workers directive. We are relieved to see that an agreement was not reached. The current draft of the directive would have resulted in greater bureaucracy, more risk in engaging temps and therefore less job opportunities.”

* See Recruiter 12 December for more details